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Book Review: ‘Concrete Rose’ by Angie Thomas

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas crafts the origin story of the Carter patriarch from her successful debut The Hate U Give and shows the parallels of Maverick’s teenage life in the late 1990s with his daughter Starr’s contemporary experience.

This prequel focuses on 17-year-old Maverick and his foray into unplanned parenthood amid a contentious relationship with the gang King Lords. Maverick is making amends with his girlfriend, Lisa, after a brief breakup and hanging out with his friends like gang members King and cousin Dre. But he’s keeping a secret from Lisa: He may be the father of King’s son. Maverick learns he is the father, which creates a hardship for him and his single mother and a rift between him and King. Dre is the main person Maverick can depend on since he’s also a father and preparing to marry his baby’s mother. As the big brother figure, Dre advises Maverick to get a real job at the mom-and-pops grocery instead of selling drugs. Maverick is desperate for money, but he knows his cousin is looking out for him. Then that protection disappears when Dre is shot dead in his car. Maverick is the first responder and vows to avenge his cousin’s murder. As he follows leads, Maverick is having a hard time supporting his son who he names Seven, the number he calls perfect. He has to decide if selling drugs and killing Dre’s killer is worth it when he finds out he will be a father for the second time.

As a loyal reader to Angie Thomas’ work, this novel becomes more entertaining when piecing together the timeline of seeing where Seven, Lisa, Uncle Carlos, and Starr intersect in Maverick’s life. It’s a portrait of a family who has become familiar in pages and onscreen. The author even thanks actor Russell Hornsby, who plays adult Maverick in The Hate U Give film, at the end for inspiring Maverick’s teenage story. The intersection continues with Maverick witnessing the aftermath of Dre’s murder similar to Starr witnessing the actual murder of her friend Khalil by a police officer. With Starr’s situation, we know the killer while Maverick is carrying the guilt of not knowing the killer. Maverick also finds himself alone in advocating for Dre, who falls out of the media cycle as another Black gang member murder victim unlike Starr who gets unwanted attention with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement spotlighting Khalil’s murder by police.

Angie Thomas and fellow multicultural young adult author Elizabeth Acevedo seem to be the top best-selling authors in the subgenre as evidenced in what literary agents say in Twitter pitch parties. But they both prioritize tropes among teens of color such as teen pregnancy in their novels. Though their stories show a realistic depth to the situation, this thread is becoming more common in YA literature when teen pregnancy rates are on the decline, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Concrete Rose, the author has other characters, particularly Maverick’s extended family, upset about him not having only one baby but two babies within months. Others vocalizing the disappointment sits heavy with Maverick that adds to the allure of earning more money illegally.

Overall, like its related novels in the Garden Heights universe, Concrete Rose flows with familiarity with the first-person narrative and shows a character’s true feelings about hardships associated with their surroundings.



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Book Review: Chlorine Sky by Mahogany L. Browne

Chlorine Sky

Chlorine Sky by Mahogany L. Browne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

*Given an advanced reading copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Chlorine Sky by Mahogany L. Browne is a novel-in-verse featuring two Black girls engaged in a toxic friendship that is hanging on a thread, but the verse and the story fail to strike a chord.

Skyy, the main character’s name we learn on the last page, is a basketballer who feels less beautiful compared to other girls, especially her best friend Lay Li, who seems to be the most beautiful girl at school. Lay Li is a boy magnet while Skyy suppresses crushes on boys. So when Lay Li’s ex-boyfriend Shawn tries to get more information on her new boyfriend Curtis, Skyy disses Curtis. And like that Lay Li ignores Skyy like she ignores Shawn. In disbelief, Skyy works to get back in Lay Li’s good graces as she feels the pain of losing her best friend over a trivial situation. She can’t confide in Lay Li or her older sister Essa, who’s always mean, and she doesn’t see her cousin Inga, who’s always nice, enough. So she stays on the basketball court and falls for a boy named Clifton. They kiss, but Skyy feels sad that she can’t share this information with Lay Li. Days go by until Lay Li comes to Skyy to share her very different experience with Clifton.

The novel-in-verse is becoming a genre that literary agents want to boost in the industry. Except it’s difficult to tell a sufficient story that fits into a novel in verse. This book’s verse is borderline mediocre, some good parts but mostly so-so parts as in the combination of words are not impressive. For grammar geeks, the paragraph breaks aren’t placed in the best spots with ampersands starting at lines and capitalization is not used enough. For visual geeks, the cover is beautiful with the oranges and navy blues around a Black girl trying to find herself while rescuing a friendship.

Overall, the book is short but not as sweet as expected. The story has familiar elements with the athletic girl being best friends with the fashionable girl. Opposites attract, but in high school the athletic girl feels inferior to the fashionable girl because of the heightened attention on what is classified as beauty. And beauty means everything in adolescence when boys are in the picture, especially when the boys are the ones creating the division between the female friendships.

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Author Natasha Diaz Wants Us to Know Black Jewish Stories Matter

When Natasha Díaz discovered her debut novel was excluded from a Black Jewish book list, she went to Twitter to air her frustrations that led to a conversation on multiracial Jewish literature.

Natasha’s young adult novel Color Me In features a sixteen-year-old protagonist who moves in with Black mother’s family after her parents divorce, but her White Jewish father wants to throw her a belated bat mitzvah. The change in surroundings and circumstances heightens the racial and religious intolerance, according to the publisher Penguin Random House imprint Ember, but the teenager who’s usually quiet tries to find her voice amid the noise. On her author website, she says the book is “inspired by my experiences as a white passing, multiracial woman.”

In June, Natasha tweeted she had submitted the book that was first published in 2019 to the Association of Jewish Libraries for inclusion in its list of Black Jewish literature in light of the George Floyd protests. She said the association refused to add her book to the list.

The Association of Jewish Libraries created a list that includes the YA best-seller Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert, which comes from Little, Brown & Co. Books for Young Readers about a Black girl who’s trying to deal with her White Jewish stepbrother’s mental illness. The list is the seventh installment in the association’s Love Your Neighbor series, an initiative to promote works by Jewish authors in the aftermath of the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue mass shooting in Pittsburgh.

By mid-June, Natasha started a campaign asking for followers to amplify Black Jewish writers whether they were published or unpublished. Within two months, she penned the article “What It’s Like to Be a Black Jewish Writer” in Alma, a digital media outlet focused on pop culture content about Jewish women.

I never read a character who was grappling with where to fit, how to own her whole self, and also how to take accountability for white presenting privilege, in a book. Yes, it’s a lot, but it’s my life, and while I was so incredibly proud to learn my book was “a first,” I couldn’t help but also feel infinitely sad that my Black Jewish experience, which is so impacted by my proximity to whiteness, is the only one to travel through the traditional publishing channels and represent young Black Jews in children’s literature.

In the article, she has a roundtable discussion that includes Marra Gad, the author of the award-winning memoir The Color of Love: A Story of a Mixed-Race Jewish Girl from Agate Publishing, and Rachel Harrison-Gordon, the filmmaker behind Broken Bird about a Black Jewish girl preparing for her bat mitzvah. Also in August, Natasha was interviewed by the Jewish Book Council and discussed her book’s impact.

Perhaps one of the most visible Black Jewish authors is Rebecca Walker, the daughter of writing legend Alice Walker, who wrote about her multiethnic upbringing in her first memoir, Black White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self, published by Penguin Random House in 2002. Rebecca is the author and editor of seven books, including a debut novel called Adé: A Love Story, originally published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co. and Amazon Publishing Co. in 2013. A year later, pop icon Madonna was set to direct a film based on the book.

Meanwhile, Natasha continues to discover and elevate multiracial and Black Jewish writers on social media who still battle deep-rooted hatred from within the White Jewish community and antisemitism outside the community.

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How Moments of Racial Tension Are Shaping YA Literature

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Six well-known Black female authors with best-selling credentials came together to announce their joint project of a young adult novel surrounding the 2003 New York City blackout. Though the collaboration is a publisher dream, it also shows how moments of racial tension particularly in recent U.S. history are the moneymaking moves for authors of color to get their literary voices out into the world.

Angie Thomas of The Hate U Give, Tiffany D. Jackson of Grown, Nic Stone of Dear Martin, Nicola Yoon of Everything, Everything; Dhonielle Clayton of The Belles, and Ashley Woodfolk of The Beauty That Remains are teaming up for Blackout. The collection of six interconnected stories that will “bring the glowing warmth and electricity of Black teen love to this interlinked novel of charming, hilarious, and heartwarming stories that shine a bright light through the dark,” according to publisher HarperCollins Publishers and its imprint Quill Tree Books. The book’s release date is June 22, 2021.

Mistaken for terrorism almost two years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Northeast blackout of 2003 was a massive power outage that crippled the East Coast, most notably New York City. This sent hundreds of thousands of people to the streets after many had been evacuated off the largest public transportation system or had left their vehicles since traffic lights weren’t working. With the dark atmosphere on a ninety-degree day in August, unease took over some areas as ambulances raced to destinations and people stole merchandise. Race and youth naturally became a concern.

Making race and youth the main elements in a young adult novel seems to be more common now, especially with the contributions of the aforementioned authors. Angie Thomas rose to literary fame when The Hate U Give explored the theme of unarmed Black boys being shot by police or racists as did Nic Stone’s Dear Martin. Another recent example includes Christina Hammonds Reed’s debut novel The Black Kids, which revolves around the 1992 Los Angeles uprising and includes a mention of the 1921 Black Wall Street massacre. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Karyn Parsons recently spoke about her middle grade novel How High the Moon, which revolves around the 1944 George Stinney Jr. execution.

These historical events impacting Black communities were rarely taught in school but are seeing a resurgence in mentions amid the anti-racism movement. As students are learning from their homes, some YA authors of color like Dhonielle Clayton and Kelly Yang are speaking to classrooms via Zoom though they said they dealt with racial discrimination.

YA literature, particularly for children of color, is evolving to be a supplemental lesson on race and youth that will take moments from the not-so-distant past and use character voices to convey those missing perspectives.

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Book Review: ‘Grown’ by Tiffany D. Jackson

GrownGrown by Tiffany D. Jackson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson rips a page from the Mute R. Kelly movement to create a traumatic storyline that brings a teenage girl in the crosshairs of the dangerously famous life of an R&B crooner with a penchant for attracting underaged girls.

Enchanted Jones sees herself as a mermaid. She swims on her high school team and fosters a golden voice. One day her best friend Gabriella tells Enchanted about a showcase where she can win an opportunity for the singing career of her dreams. Enchanted tricks her mother into driving them to the showcase where she sings her heart out onstage but doesn’t get a coveted spot on a singing competition show. But 28-year-old R&B sensation Korey Fields does notice Enchanted and hands her his phone number when her mother isn’t looking.

That transpires into a flirty text message exchange with Korey dropping promises to catapult Enchanted’s career. Her parents agree for Enchanted to spend time with Korey in his home studio. Those experiences bring Enchanted and Korey closer while her parents are wondering why they can’t come into the session or why she’s staying hours longer. Once their relationship goes public thanks to a viral video Korey released without Enchanted’s knowledge, Enchanted joins Korey on tour. Her parents aren’t sure, but Korey’s female assistant Jessica agrees to be a guardian for Enchanted. Jessica is a woman, so the parents trust her to watch over Enchanted. But of course that’s not what happens.

Enchanted is transformed into the adult singer Korey wants her to be but so is another girl from the showcase that Enchanted finds in Korey’s mansion. They both are locked into their respective rooms. Jessica tells Enchanted she can’t leave the room for any reason—even going to the bathroom in which she’s given a bucket. The fairy tale romance Enchanted thought she had quickly is going south with Korey controlling her every move. She eventually breaks away but not before she’s a suspect in his murder.

The story mirrors what we know of R. Kelly’s alleged sexual predatoriness on teenage girls. Enchanted is promised the singing career of her dreams by the famous Korey Fields as he lures her into a manipulative relationship.

One factor here is that other characters around Enchanted are embarrassed by her faux pas of spending time with Korey such as her Will & Willow friends. The Black social group mimicking the real Jack & Jill have text exchanges throughout the book judging Enchanted and her parents for what’s taking place in the limelight. They say their parents are judging Enchanted’s parents for signing off on the tour and losing contact with their daughter. Enchanted’s younger sister Shea is totally embarrassed at Will & Willow and at their predominantly White school about what Enchanted has done. Gabriella demands Enchanted leave Korey alone, which puts stress on their friendship until Gabriella disappears from Enchanted’s life. And when Enchanted tries to find Gabriella after leaving Korey, nobody believes Gabriella even exists.

The trust Enchanted and her family have for Korey in the beginning also stems from the celebrity status. Korey is a known figure, so why would he hurt Enchanted? Like the real R. Kelly, the fictional R&B singer had allegations against him in the media brought by women who had inappropriate relationships with him when underaged, but his success overpowered that news. People confuse celebrity for trust because these individuals are famous and they wouldn’t break the law with so many eyes on their every move, but the last several years have taught us that a lot of men kept secrets pre-#MeToo movement and when their secrets rose to the public surface, they were quashed.

The edge of eighteen is another issue explored in this book with Enchanted getting too excited to enter adulthood and make her dreams happen instantly. Usually adults learn quickly that dreams don’t happen in a snap, but teens desire that freedom on the highest level. And many girls find themselves in the grasp of men who promise them that freedom, and in this case, that dream if they engage in a sexual relationship with those men. They believe it’s their only hope while they also get their hearts involved, which is what Enchanted does when she feels like she has to protect Korey’s feelings especially when he’s dramatically displaying them and blaming the outbursts on his past.

Overall, this book has triggering elements but heightens the sexual, physical, and emotional abuse a girl can go through while in a relationship with a grown man.

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Book Review: ‘Punching the Air’ by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

Punching the AirPunching the Air by Ibi Zoboi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I say
That maybe
I was punching
All the walls
They put around me
Around us

I was punching
The air
The clouds
The sun


Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five illustrates a heart-wrenching portrayal of a Black teen boy trying to find what joy he has left in juvenile hall after being accused of putting a White teen boy into a coma.

Amal is a regular sixteen-year-old Black boy growing up in New York when he finds himself in a courtroom fighting charges that he put a White boy from another neighborhood into a coma. He gets sent to juvie, where he taps his artistic and poetic ability as best as he can, but he’s deterred at every corner. The other boys are volatile and the adults are judgmental. Poetry class is his only outlet, but Amal struggles with the work the instructor wants him to put into his poems. Then his artistry clicks for him, and this leads to him repainting a mural in the common area where the boys meet up with their families. Amal becomes known as “Young Basquiat,” a tribute to Jean-Michel Basquiat, until that morsel of happiness is taken away from him, and his life seems to be precariously hanging in the balance again.

The entire story is told in verse. This young adult novel differs from others exploring the racial justice movement since the main character is in actual custody and his freedom depends solely on what a White boy says, only if he wakes up from his coma. How a Black boy’s life depends on a White boy’s testimony shows readers the racial dynamics even kids are dealing with. They had gotten into a fight that went too far. Amal says he didn’t throw the harmful blow that put Jeremy in a coma. The boys don’t know each other because Amal and his friends crossed over the physical boundaries of their neighborhood that separate Black and White families with markers of housing, education, resources, and opportunities.

Mental health is a major theme. One way Amal tries to stay grounded is through his Islamic faith. It’s refreshing to see a Black Muslim teen in a young adult novel because the religion is rarely seen in the genre, and when it is, it seems to belong to a Middle Eastern kid instead. Amal’s faith ties him to his mother, who reminds him to pray five times a day. He knows he stands out as a devout Muslim in juvie, and his faith remains under threat inside those gray walls behind bars. Amal also struggles with his poetry and art in the dreary environment. The story examines the power of art for youth since it represents healthy expression. When art is taken away by adults to cause detriment, a teen’s mental health could deteriorate, especially if they’re in a situation like juvie.

Overall, the novel dives into a serious issue of incarcerated teens and those teens looking for any glimpse of bright light they can capture to strengthen themselves. The co-author Yusef Salaam was one of the five Black and Latino teen boys found guilty in the Central Park jogger rape case in 1989. Salaam and Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise are now considered the Exonerated Five after they were exonerated in 2002 when the real rapist had been located through DNA testing. The novel is based on Salaam using his passion for art during his years behind bars also waiting for the truth to be revealed. That’s the most powerful aspect of this book: how race plays a part in who is trusted with the truth.

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Book Review: ‘Cinderella Is Dead’ by Kalynn Bayron

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

*Given an advanced reading copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron is a fascinating take on what happened after fairy tale icon Cinderella married Prince Charming and how it’s not happily ever after.

Two hundred years after the death of Cinderella, in the kingdom of Lille girls are forced to attend a ball put on by King Manford. At the ball, a man will lay claim on the girl, and they’ll be married, even if the girl doesn’t want to. That’s the world Sophia lives in, and she hates it because she’s in love with her best friend Erin. But Sophia’s parents are putting everything they have into preparing Sophia for the ball in order for her to marry well, and Erin isn’t on board with defying the system. Sophia tries to get with the sacrifices until at the ball she realizes she can’t do that. In the process, she upsets the king and runs away into the dark forest. When she wakes up, she finds herself at Cinderella’s tomb with a redheaded girl named Constance who claims to be a descendant of one of Cinderella’s stepsisters. Constance tells Sophia the real story of Cinderella and how her life wasn’t a fairy tale, how a far more sinister event caused her death, leading to the kingdom diminishing the rights of girls and women in favor of male domination. Sophia becomes even more determined to be with Erin and works with Constance to take down the kingdom. They head to the home of the fabled godmother for assistance, and from there they learn even more history about their society and receive more fuel to save the girls and women of Lille.

The story opens the reader’s mind about the tale of Cinderella and how it can be interpreted as a failure and not a dream come true. The interpretation of the fairy tale’s legacy of oppressing females resonates in the current environment in different ways around the world, so it’s striking to see this kingdom struggle with real-life issues based on the interpretation of a well-known story. On top of the oppression, Sophia loves a girl and is told she can’t do that; it’s punishable by law. The transformation of Sophia’s love also uplifts the story with her feelings shifting to who supports her goal to take down the kingdom.

Overall, the novel moves with a nice energy, and the story continually interprets the Cinderella story in different ways that add to the uniqueness of this new story.

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Book Review: ‘The Black Kids’ by Christina Hammonds Reed

The Black KidsThe Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed features a Black teen girl living in the wealthier outskirts of Los Angeles during the 1992 uprising, but the historical event’s impact falls between the cracks as the main character stays on the sidelines.

Ashley is a well-to-do Black girl living in the hills in an all-White neighborhood where even her own neighbors sit outside on the lawn as a pretend patrol. Ashley’s older sister Jo is considered rebellious and moves away to live in the Crenshaw and Koreatown area of the city, which eventually become hotspots during the unrest. Also, Lucia, Ashley’s nanny, is planning to move back to her native Guatemala with her family. And Ashley’s parents are off focused on their demanding careers. Then on April 29, 1992, the Rodney King verdict comes down. The unarmed Black man beaten by four LAPD officers the year prior doesn’t see justice as those officers are acquitted. Hours later, the city of LA is afire, dredging up a level of racial tension unseen in a generation. But Ashley still wants to fit in with her White friends at her White private school. She starts a rumor about Black male classmate with a promising basketball future being criminally involved in the uprising. Then all of a sudden she recognizes the microaggressions she had been dealing with for years from her White girlfriends. As she questions what’s happening to the city, her uncle drops off his daughter at Ashley’s home to stay focused on saving the family’s vacuum store threatened by the fires. How the uprising is affecting her family leads to even more revelations. She’s starting to see how race impacts her life. The tension pressurizes for days until it explodes at prom where Ashley experiences the ultimate betrayal from her so-called friends and realizes which friendships need to be killed and which ones need to be nurtured.

Ashley’s life and surroundings seem relatable today though it’s a story taking place almost 30 years ago. The author does a great job with framing the time element to make teen readers feel closer to the story.

The writing is flowery but gets convoluted with throwing the actual events of 1992 on the shelf in favor of character backstory every few pages. The amount of flashbacks bury the current moment. Though the flashbacks are interesting and intimate, they clog up the story development as it moves at a slow pace. With Ashley as the main character, she is also living the uprising precariously through other characters who seem to be more in the action or more affected like her sister Jo and her cousin Morgan. Showing the story from the characters who are in the heat of the uprising would’ve been more interesting. Ashley tends to be too aware where her voice comes off more adultish as she quickly picks up on the deep meaning of what’s going on around her. It’s noticeable via the audiobook where actress Kiersey Clemons gives the story a gloomy feel.

Overall, the synopsis feels a bit misleading with the focus on the 1992 LA uprising since the main character is physically removed from the situation therefore trying too hard emotionally to be involved with it. The more exciting story would be around the characters in the middle of the uprising. It’s a novel where you would want another character’s perspective or have the perspectives change every chapter.

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Book Review: ‘A Song Below Water’ by Bethany C. Morrow

A Song Below WaterA Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

*Given an advanced reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow follows two teen girls who call themselves sisters as they evolve into their true selves in an environment that discriminates against who they are.

Effie is changing. Her skin is unbearably itchy as she keeps scratching her scalp around her locs. She tries to conceal this irritation by remembering she’s Euphemia the Mer, the town faire’s cosplaying mermaid, along with Elric, the cosplaying merman. As the faire is set to begin, Effie can’t concentrate as a murder case of a siren becomes news. And Effie still hasn’t gotten over her friends turning into stone years before at the park while she was spared. In this story, sirens live among humans and are exclusively black females, so they face severe discrimination since society wants white sirens.

Tavia is a siren who lost her voice. She and Effie become sisters when Effie’s grandmother sends Effie to live with Tavia’s family. For Tavia, she’s having a hard time getting over her ex-boyfriend, Priam, an eloko, the beings connected to sirens who manifest in other races, so they don’t get the same degree of discrimination like sirens.

This fantasy YA novel mixes fantasy and reality, but the story can get lost in the weeds amid the constant world-building involving multiple magical beings. The racial thread is interesting, but most of the time blackness is described through Effie scratching her scalp and watching a natural hair YouTuber who turns out to be a siren. Effie’s hair and skin become the main issue, above the murder trial she’s paying attention to or Tavia getting pulled over by the police. The setting is Portland, Oregon, a community that has become notorious for not supporting its black population. Also, a gargoyle is perched on their roof at home. Making sirens black and emphasizing how they’re expected to be white is an interesting comparison, especially with mentioning a high-profile murder of a black woman suspected to be a siren and how it’s playing out in the media. The threat of showing magic affects both Tavia, who already knows she’s a siren, and Effie, who’s not sure who she is yet though she suspects a siren.

Overall, the black girl magic theme underlies this story of two teen girls trying to find their place in high school among human beings and other beings while remaining true to their destinies.

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Quarantine Life Lessons From Nicola Yoon’s ‘Everything, Everything’

With most of the U.S. population under some type of stay-at-home measure, it may feel like we’re Madeline Whittier from Nicola Yoon’s 2015 blockbuster young adult novel Everything, Everything. The 17-year-old character stays home her entire life after her doctor mother diagnosed her with severe combined immunodeficiency, meaning she’s allergic to pretty much everything.

Maddy’s illness keeps her indoors all day every day. Her mother takes every precaution to make sure Maddy’s bubble stays clean, with the assistance of Maddy’s home nurse Carla. But once Maddy lays eyes on her new neighbor Olly outside her bedroom window, she questions the lifestyle her mother put her in after her father and younger brother died years before.

Since Maddy stayed inside for 17 years, she has moments in the book that reflect on what many may be experiencing now amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

KEEP THE CONSTANT ONLINE INTERACTION

At the start of the chapter “Secrets,” Maddy expresses how her online communication is reducing her sleep: “My constant IMing with Olly is catching up with me. I fall asleep during not one but two movie nights with my mom. She begins worrying that something’s wrong, that my immune system is compromised somehow.”

As Maddy and Olly mostly depend on online interaction, they exhibit the qualities many people are feeling now with using social media like Instagram Live and videoconferencing tools like Zoom to stay in touch because they can’t see each other in person. Authors are using IG Live to read their works, give writing lessons, and interview each other. Book clubs have found refuge with Zoom to keep their book selections on schedule and continue or start face-to-face meetings.

MAKE FANCY HOME-COOKED DINNERS

The “Menteuse” chapter describes the dinner traditions between Maddy and Pauline, which sometimes include Carla. “Everything at Friday Night Dinner is French. The napkins are white cloth embroidered with fleur-de-lis at the edges. The cutlery is antique French and ornate. We even have miniature silver la tour Eiffel salt and pepper shakers.”

She goes on about how Pauline likes to make cassoulet, “a French stew with chicken, sausage, duck, and white beans.” Except their cassoulet only contains the white beans because of Maddy’s allergies.

One of the conversations that keeps coming up online during the coronavirus isolation is people are either learning to cook or taking pleasure in cooking their own meals. To dress up dinner night, incorporate a theme to keep spirits high at least once a week for yourself or your family.

EXAMINE STRANGE DREAMS

In “My White Balloon,” Maddy describes a dream she had about the house breathing in line with her. On an inhale, walls collapse, but on an exhale, they expand.

According to the World Economic Forum, a sleep expert says the reportedly high rate of vivid dreams people are having during the coronavirus lockdown may be due to information and emotional overload. Maddy is having similar dreams early on in the book when she first sees Olly, which revs her up to find out more about him and how to communicate with him.

MOVE THROUGH THE BOOKSHELF

In “Madam, I’m Adam,” Maddy tells us she returns to a lot of her favorite books: “Sometimes I reread my favorite books from back to front. I start with the last chapter and read backward until I get to the beginning. When you read this way, characters go from hope to despair, from self-knowledge to doubt.”

If you have an obsession to outpace your book consumption with buying more books before finishing most of the ones already on your shelf, then this may be the perfect time to make a dent in your home readership. With physical libraries closed, it makes us value the books we own and revisit the ones we love. More people, not really bibliophiles, have done Marie Kondo makeovers on their bookshelves, so bulking up a skimpy bookshelf can still be done with supporting independent bookstores and checking out library e-books through a mobile device.

Everything, Everything was also made into a motion picture in 2017, starring Amandla Stenberg, Anika Noni Rose, and Nick Robinson.

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Book Review: ‘Frankly in Love’ by David Yoon

Frankly in Love (Frankly in Love, #1)Frankly in Love by David Yoon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Frankly in Love by David Yoon, young adult author Nicola Yoon’s husband, is an intricate fictional first-person narrative from a Korean teen boy trying to overcome the subtle racism he was taught because he now finds himself liking a girl he knows his parents would never approve.

Frank Li is a first-generation Korean American teen living in Orange County, California. He starts falling for Brit Means, a white girl at his school. But he knows his strict Korean parents won’t be having that. They even practically disowned their older daughter, who attended Harvard and became an investment banker like she was groomed to do, but to them she canceled all her success by marrying a black man. Even with his best friend Q Lee, who’s black, Frank knows his parents aren’t the most comfortable with Q though they swear they love him like another son because he’s not like “other black people.” With that in his head, Frank decides to recruit his friend, Joy Song, who’s not only Korean but her parents are friends with Frank’s parents, to be his fake girlfriend. She also is hiding who she’s dating, a Chinese boy she knows her parents won’t approve of. While Frank invites Brit to his house with other friends, Brit doesn’t know about the ploy and falls deeper for her new boyfriend. After they exchange “I love you,” Frank is having doubts that he picked the right girl after all.

Frank’s voice is authentic with the constant worrying over race and how his hormones are leading him to someone outside his race then within his race but not within his income bracket. He struggles with how his immigrant parents racially profile everyone like many parents do, especially taking into consideration their American experience and what their parents taught them. The book does a good job in this mental back-and-forth of surveying the meaning of race around the character and seeing it affecting his life in a bad way yet not knowing how to avoid it. His internal monologue, though on the long side, shows what a lot of teens are coping with when it comes to relationships and their parents possibly not being supportive only because of the race of the partner they choose.

Some book reviews discuss the book’s length, and yes it’s too long and has the character going through a lot during his senior year on top of worrying about his love life, dealing with his parents, and trying to get into college. The beginning of the book is very long with over-describing his life and that same rhythm returns at the end, as in there are few times you think the book will end but it keeps going. It needed better editing when it came to length.

Overall, the book handles mixed-race relationships among teens well and how even today they may be dealing with heavier racial issues because they’re hearing their parents discuss race in a negative way. In this book, Frank becomes a bit obsessed analyzing race in his world, but he’s developing his viewpoints around cultural expectations and trying to figure out love in the process. Also listened to this story on audiobook where the narrator’s voice works except when he did the girls’ voice, which came out comical, but it’s a likeable audio read.

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what's lit

Black Fantasy YA Authors Discuss How They Are Revolutionizing the Genre

Up-and-coming Black fantasy young adult authors convened on a YouTube video chat hosted by Black Girls Create to go deeper into how they gravitated to the genre and what they hope their works can achieve for readers.

Bayana Davis of Black Girls Create, a hub for Black female creators, moderated the first half of the #KuumbaKickback conversation featuring Nandi Taylor, Jordan Ifueko, Namina Forna, and Roseanne A. Brown. Porshèa Patterson-Hurst moderated the second half with authors Kalynn Bayron, Tracy Deonn, and Bethany C. Morrow.

All the authors, who also participated in a #DontRush video challenge, mentioned how they fell in love with the fantasy genre but failed to see characters that looked like them and how the lack of visibility led to their writing careers. The video of the conversations are available on the Black Girls Create’s YouTube channel now.

Nandi Taylor is the author of Given. The story is about why “island princess Yenni is searching for a way to save her father’s life, but a handsome yet infuriating shapeshifting dragon becomes an unexpected distraction,” according to publisher Wattpad. The book is out now and has reached 1.2 million reads.

Nandi opened up about how she felt when trying to insert herself into certain fantasy stories, which created a conversation among the authors about being a Black girl who loved fantasy but not seeing Black girls in the stories.

“I loved reading fantasy, but the fantasy worlds I was reading about were very Eurocentric and it felt—how do I say this?—it felt wrong to insert myself in those worlds, which is sad to say. I felt kind of guilty like I wasn’t meant to be there. So I started writing my own world, so I can do that self-insertion without feeling guilty or ashamed.”

Jordan Ifueko is the author of Raybearer. Publisher Abrams’ imprint Amulet Books says “with extraordinary world-building and breathtaking prose, Raybearer is the story of loyalty, fate, and the lengths we’re willing to go for the ones we love.” The book is available on April 14.

Jordan spoke about how African influence in fantasy and science fiction stories was historically erased or not accurately documented amid colonialism.

“I wanted to write fantasy because I wanted a story about a magical Black girl who didn’t have to endure slavery or systematic subjugation to win something. I feel like there are so very few stories based on real life, which that happens to Black girls, not because there weren’t Black girls who were awesome and powerful but because those stories were not recorded in history. Precolonial Africa, especially West Africa, had powerful women all over the place, but we don’t hear about those women because you have to dig and dig and dig and dig to even get a reference to some of those heroines because the history was written by the colonizers and they didn’t care.”

Namina Forna is the author of The Gilded Ones. The debut novel is described as “the start of a bold and immersive West African-inspired, feminist fantasy series for fans of Children of Blood and Bone and Black Panther. In this world, girls are outcasts by blood and warriors by choice.” The book is scheduled for release in spring 2021.

Namina described her experience of immigrating to Atlanta from Sierra Leone at a young age and dealing with post-traumatic stress syndrome once she was old enough to understand the effects of the civil war in her native country.

“One of the ways I was able to cope with everything that was happening was by disappearing into fantasy. I would read, read, read, read a lot. When you read, you’re able to ignore what is happening around you and even when I came to America and really started understanding what was happening more, for me I loved disappearing into fantasy worlds. They’re my safe space. I think that is the importance of fantasy: it’s a place in which you can disappear, in which you can deal with things you might not have the wherewithal to deal with.”

Roseanne A. Brown is the author of The Song of Wraiths and Ruin. Publisher HarperCollins calls the book “the first in a gripping fantasy duology inspired by West African folklore in which a grieving crown princess and a desperate refugee find themselves on a collision course to murder each other despite their growing attraction.” The book will be out June 2.

Roseanne, who immigrated to the U.S. from Ghana at a young age, said fantasy was the genre of choice for her to weave in today’s racial issues.

“While I really respect contemporary writers in what they can do to bring things in the here and now to engage on our level, I found putting it a step away and putting it in a different world—in a world that mirrors our own, reflects our own—to really come to terms with heavier things like we see in race. We have intergenerational trauma, we have violence against girls, we have self-harming—those are all real things teens in our world are dealing with.”

Tracy Deonn is the author of Legendborn. The novel is “filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonn’s YA contemporary fantasy Legendborn offers the dark allure of City of Bones with a modern-day twist on a classic legend and a lot of Southern Black Girl Magic,” publisher Simon & Schuster wrote. It’s scheduled for a Sept. 15 release. Tracy also contributed to Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 YA Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America.

Tracy spoke about noticing the very few Black characters in science fiction and fantasy media while she was growing up and trying to connect as a Black girl to the characters she loved.

“I remember being drawn to certain characters consistently and wanting more from them. We talked about Star Trek already. Obviously, I liked Uhura. I could’ve watched the whole show about her. I wanted to watch a whole show about her. I was drawn to any character in any fantasy TV show, cartoon, or otherwise who looked vaguely Black in any sort of way I was like that’s me.”

She mentioned her feelings when Storm Reid, who’s Black, was cast in Disney’s 2018 Ava DuVernay version A Wrinkle in Time based on Madeleine L’Engle‘s middle grade fantasy classic, which also starred bookish celebrities Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindy Kaling. “

The little part of me inside was, ‘This is revolutionary. This idea that we can be Meg.’ That was fulfilling in a long arc in a way of reading that and wanting to be Meg and actually seeing it later as an adult.”

Bethany C. Morrow is the author A Song Below Water. It is “a captivating modern fantasy about Black mermaids, friendship, and self-discovery set against the challenges of today’s racism and sexism,” wrote publisher MacMillan. The book is expected to be out on June 2. Bethany also wrote Mem and edited and contributed to the YA anthology Take the Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance.

Bethany promoted science fiction in the post-slavery diaspora since many recent Black fantasy stories take place in Africa, saying these stories are necessary to tell to incorporate all types of Black characters.

“Even when I do science fiction, I’m always dealing with what it means to be a Black American. I think that is extremely important. I think that Black American kids need fantasy and science fiction that is Black American science fiction, Black American fantasy that doesn’t make them feel like it’s second fiddle to something else, like it’s derivative, it’s not as important, to liken it to something to be ashamed of. Again feeling like you’re supposed to take ownership of something and divorce from what has been done to you is something I’m not OK with… I love all the West African folklore that’s coming out. Central African fantasy and that sort of thing. I’m in love with all that stuff. It’s never a neither nor situation but again as a Black American child who grew up on the West Coast, I deserve to see myself specifically too. I deserve not to be erased from the American tradition, from the American culture, from American histories and storytelling, so I’m specifically writing diaspora fantasy, diaspora science fiction.”

Kalynn Bayron is the author of Cinderella Is Dead. The story takes place “200 years since Cinderella found her prince, but the fairytale is over” according to publisher Bloomsbury, which adds it’s “an electrifying twist on the classic fairytale that will inspire girls to break out of limiting stereotypes and follow their dreams!” The book will be available on June 8.

Kalynn discussed the hardships of growing up as Black girl in Portland, Oregon, where Bethany’s A Song Below Water takes place, and how reading fantasy became a refuge.

“What happens there when you are a brown girl, growing up there as a child, it makes me emotional to think about the environment there and how it affects you and how the racism is very polite…. Writing about characters that fit into the intersection of race, gender, sexuality in the fantasy genre is really important to me. It is something I want to keep doing.”

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what's lit

Ibi Zoboi Talks Writing Process With Yusef Salaam in New YA Book

Award-winning young adult author Ibi Zoboi and Dr. Yusef Salaam shared their writing process on their upcoming YA book.

On Instagram Live Wednesday, Ibi explained how she infused her writing into Yusef’s poetry in Punching the Air. It tells the story of 16-year-old Amal Shahid, a Black Muslim teen pursuing poetry and art, who finds himself in prison after “an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy,” according to the publisher HarperCollins Publishers.

During the video chat, Ibi wore a T-shirt printed with art by Yusef that he named “Born Brave” and had designed while wrongfully convicted for seven years over the 1989 rape of a White female jogger. He was a part of the Central Park Five, the group of four Black teens and one Latino teen blamed for the infamous crime. They became known as the Exonerated Five after filmmaker Ava DuVernay brought their story to Netflix last year in When They See Us. The group was exonerated in 2002 after the identity of the real rapist was discovered. Yusef was 15 when he went to jail.

While in jail, Yusef found ways to create art and poetry with the tools he could find like a pin in his clothes.

“Art is a completely liberating meditative process,” he said in the chat. “When you get the opportunity to delve into it and be free with it, you don’t really know where it’s going to go. And the beauty of it is when you finish coming out of the meditation and see what you’ve created, it’s like, ‘Wow.'”

Attendees were allowed to ask questions, and the first question focused on how Ibi and Yusef co-wrote the book.

“I’m the writer and Yusef is the storyteller in this situation,” Ibi said. “It was collaborative in the storytelling process, and I could not have written this book without Yusef’s input and Yusef’s history and Yusef’s mindset.”

She said while Yusef was busy promoting When They See Us she was hard at work. “While he was doing that, I was typing away and really having conversations with him, so in that sense he was the storyteller and I was the writer and transcriber, and Yusef was giving me ideas.”

Though they didn’t go into detail about the specific crime that leads Amal to trouble, the co-authors said the crime is inspired by their upbringings in segregated 1980s New York. They also said they didn’t want to apply Yusef’s real story to the novel.

Ibi and Yusef said they were inspired by the 1989 murder of Yusuf Hawkins, a Black teen, who was killed by a White teen mob in the predominantly White section of Bensonhurst in Brooklyn after inquiring about a car for sale with his friends. His group was mistaken for another group going to a birthday party of a girl one of the White boys had a relationship with.

The authors also recalled the Jena Six case of six Black teens in Jena, Louisiana who had beaten a White classmate in 2006. The incident followed a Black teen at their local high school trying to sit in a part of the courtyard reserved for White kids. The Jena Six received attention from civil rights leaders after they had been heavily charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Since this incident occurred before social media took off, Ibi said we tend to have a collective amnesia about racially charged events.

“I was scared to write this story, but I knew I could lean on you,” Ibi told Yusef. “I couldn’t have never written this story without you at all. One of things I asked you is whether or not you were OK with me as a woman telling this story and do you remember what you told me?”

“Absolutely,” Yusef said. “I don’t remember exactly what I told you, but there’s a certain power from a woman telling a story that can’t be not from a woman. I’m thinking about my mother as a nurturer. I’m thinking about Ava DuVernay as a master storyteller, who can take something out of the world …. I want to say I was so blessed to be able to have you in that space.”

Ibi and Yusef met in 1999 while they were both attending Hunter College in New York. American Street, Ibi’s debut novel, was a National Book Award finalist. She also wrote the YA novel Pride, a Pride and Prejudice remix, and the middle grade novel My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich. She edited the YA anthology Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America.

Punching the Air is being recommended to readers who like Jason Reynolds, who made an appearance in the Instagram Live stream, along with fellow YA novelist Nic Stone.

The book is scheduled to come out Sept. 1. The authors said in the chat that they plan to do a book tour, but no news yet on if it will be in-person or virtual.

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book reviews

Book Review: ‘On the Come Up’ by Angie Thomas

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas follows a teenage girl through her rise in the local rap game as she learns to navigate her emotions around a traumatic event at her high school. Like Angie’s debut novel The Hate U Give, this story features a black teen girl trying to overcome obstacles in the fictional Garden Heights.

The daughter of the late rap legend Lawless, Bri is 16 and hungry to jump-start her rap career. Her Aunt Pooh becomes her unofficial agent by hooking Bri up with a chance at the main rap battle competition in the city. Once she steps up into the ring, Bri feels her nerves until the rapper across from her, Milez, disses her father. She never knew her father, but she knows he deserves the respect of every rapper in Garden Heights. She transfers that anger into her rhymes, emerging as the winner. She soon learns her competitor is the son of Lawless’ manager, Supreme. And Supreme sees the opportunity to make Bri a star. While riding the wave of future stardom, Bri is slammed against the floor at her school by two white security guards. As one of a few students of color at the historically white performing arts school, Bri knows she walks in those hallways with her skin color being seen as a threat. She takes that frustration and puts it into a song. Aunt Pooh warns Bri not to release that faux gangster front song, but when Aunt Pooh disappears, Bri decides to upload the song online. It goes viral but brings up a lot of negative attention Bri was not ready for.

The story is a great follow-up to The Hate U Give with a magnified focus on hip-hop and the lifestyles the musicians feel they have to assume due to stereotypes. Bri lives in the black underdeveloped neighborhood of Garden Heights with her Aunt Pooh, who’s in the gang Garden Disciples, and her father being murdered in the streets while at the top of his game because he was faking the lifestyle of being a hardened, weapon-strapped gangster. The juxtaposition of knowing who you are and knowing who others think you are follows Bri while other characters like Bri’s mother Jayda and Milez try to rise above the stereotypes. The school incident is unfortunately becoming viral with many kids of color being thrown to the ground by a white teacher or staffer over a disciplinary issue. Again, Angie weaves a racially charged issue into her book like the shootings of unarmed black people in The Hate U Give.

Overall, this is another hypnotic read from the author that dives deep into a realistic story that’s rare to find in today’s young adult literature.

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book reviews

Book Review: ‘Viva Durant and the Secret of the Silver Buttons’ by Ashli St. Armant

Viva Durant and The Secret of the Silver ButtonsViva Durant and The Secret of the Silver Buttons by Ashli St. Armant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Viva Durant and The Secret of the Silver Buttons” by Ashli St. Armant is an imaginative girl detective story that combines music and mystery. An interview with the author will be available soon at shelit.com.

Visiting from California, Viva Durant is a teen girl who arrives in New Orleans bored by her grandmother’s seemingly simple life of running errands. Grams doesn’t want to explore New Orleans because she lives there, but Viva feels there’s so much mystique in the city that she has to explore the most exciting parts like the French Quarter. One day, Grams gives Viva a newspaper to read where Viva discovers an article about a man looking for his great-aunt’s secret treasure that could be worth a lot of money. What sticks out to Viva is the man saying the Miss Mary Mack nursery rhyme is about his ancestor and the rhyme has clues about where the treasure is, but he needed help analyzing the lyrics to crack the code. Intrigued by the backstory, Viva uses her trips into the city for Grams’ shopping list to head to various landmarks to string together the clues about “Miss Mary Mack.”

The music is creatively blended into the story during pivotal moments, especially in between chapters. Giving a history to the Miss Mary Mack rhyme on top of making it into a treasure hunt spells out an entertaining audiobook. There are moments where it feels like the mystery will stop with a questionable clue, but Viva moves forward with the clue anyway and finds better clues that bring her closer to the secret location of the silver buttons. The narrator, Bahni Turpin, also delivers the best rhythm for the childish voice of Viva.

Overall, the audiobook is perfect for a girl, especially a girl of color, interested in mystery and history.

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what's lit

Women Authors Attack Sarah Dessen Critic in Social Media Uproar

Burst

This past week, young adult author Sarah Dessen tweeted a quote from a college article by a woman who campaigned against her books in a campus reading program years ago. Many authors including Roxane Gay and Siobhan Vivian came to Sarah’s defense—until fans clapped back when the woman was being called derogatory names by top women authors. The authors backpedaled with some Twitter users accusing Sarah of white female victimhood and the authors of attacking readers with opinions on their works.

As of the weekend, the discriminatory tweets have disappeared from top authors’ Twitter feeds, including Siobhan Vivian, author of YA book We Are the Wildcats, who tweeted “Fuck that fucking bitch” about the quoted woman with Sarah saying “I love you” back.

Dhonielle Clayton, author of multicultural fantasy YA novel The Belles and co-founder of We Need Diverse Books, called the quoted woman a “raggedy ass fucking bitch.” Tiffany Jackson, author of YA novels Allegedly and Monday’s Not Coming, agreed. Siobhan’s Twitter account doesn’t exist anymore and her professional website has been made private, and Dhonielle’s account, which was very active with thousands of followers and tweets, now only has tweets from Nov. 14.

The Nov. 12 article in question came from The Aberdeen News on Northern State University’s Common Read program. Brooke Nelson, now a master’s degree student, says in the article:

“She’s fine for teen girls. But definitely not up to the level of Common Read. So I became involved simply so I could stop them from ever choosing Sarah Dessen.”

Brooke, according to the article, helped with the 2017 selection, which became Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, a memoir by a civil rights lawyer in pursuit of justice which will be a movie starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx. Sarah’s 2016 novel Saint Anything was in the running, a Vulture article reported. After Sarah mentioned the criticism in the infamous now-deleted tweet, the university issued an apology on Twitter in support of Sarah and against the free speech of an alum. Even the reporter apologized for adding the quote.

https://twitter.com/kgrandstrandAAN/status/1194307799385300998?s=20

The Washington Post was one of the first news outlets to see the Twitter feud unfold. The reporter interviewed Brooke, who said the quote was taken out of context with her emphasizing she didn’t think Sarah’s book was appropriate as a top book for her college crowd, and asked for her input:

Nelson, for her part, said she hopes the controversy draws more people to read books that will encourage them to think critically about pressing social issues.

“If anything comes out of this larger conversation,” Nelson told The Post, “I hope it is that others will make it a point to read books like [‘Just Mercy’] that push them beyond their usual perspective and challenge their assumptions of society.”

https://twitter.com/sarahdessen/status/1195431073892749315

https://twitter.com/rgay/status/1195405484905250817

https://twitter.com/pronounced_ing/status/1195742500369162240

https://twitter.com/jodipicoult/status/1195744857047928840

https://twitter.com/jenniferweiner/status/1195470675034685441

https://twitter.com/nkjemisin/status/1195745641768652800

Not everybody is going to like your book. And sometimes like in Sarah’s case, your book may be heavily scrutinized in some scenarios, even in a small-town news story about a small-town university’s book program. This comes with the territory.

Also, this story shows even as outspoken writers you have to be careful about what you decide to share publicly. Social media is an important asset to connecting with fans and readers, and now some of the authors involved have chosen to start over or take a break while most just deleted the first tweet in support of Sarah and tweeted an apology instead.

Ignore the haters if you don’t have anything nice to say; if it’s threatening in any way, then report the tweet and block the user, but just breathe when you see something constructive that you don’t like. Let it go, and if someone asks about the criticism, don’t respond or say something diplomatic because at the end of the day not everyone is going to like your work and they have the right to say so.

The unfortunate Twitter saga has some followers promoting a boycott, so we’ll keep a watch on how the authors involved will be impacted. Earlier this year, Netflix announced making three of Sarah’s novels into films.

https://twitter.com/Felicity_M2/status/1195602749959933952

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what's lit

Best-selling Young Adult Authors to Release Journals

The authors of The Hate U Give and The Poet X recently have announced they will be releasing journals as extensions of their best-selling young adult novels.

With her literary landscape-changing The Hate U Give and On the Come Up still charting on the New York Times best-sellers list, Angie Thomas told her 100,000 Instagram followers last week that Find Your Voice: A Guided Journal for Writing Your Truth will be a guide for aspiring writers. From the first look at Epic Reads, the journal has questions in colorfully graphic lettering to help readers jot down intentions for their characters, the characters’ voices, and the structure of the story. The journal will be released in March 2020.

Another award-winning YA novelist, Elizabeth Acevedo, also recently told her 43,000 Instagram followers that Write Yourself a Lantern: A Journal Inspired by The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo will come out in April 2020. Her sophomore novel, With the Fire On High, made a splash over the summer due to the impact of her 2017 debut, The Poet X. Fulfilling a similar purpose as Angie’s journal, Elizabeth’s journal will guide readers into creating their poetry with bold words decorating the pages along with empty lines to fill.

Releasing journals to complement top-selling books is growing in popularity with, for example, clean queen Marie Kondo famously coming out with Life-Changing Magic: A Journal to accompany her “spark joy” empire. Though her genre of self-help seems to be the most appropriate place for companion journals, they may also thrive in the YA space to give teens a palette to drive their creativity.

Both journals are with HarperCollins Publishers and geared toward the YA audience.

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book reviews

Book Review: ‘Season of the Witch’ by Sarah Rees Brennan

Season of the Witch (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, #1)Season of the Witch by Sarah Rees Brennan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

* Giveaway win from I Read YA*

“Season of the Witch” by Sarah Rees Brennan is the prequel novel to the “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” exploring what happens to Sabrina the summer before her 16th birthday when she’s supposed to assume her destiny as a witch and give up her mortal lifestyle.

If you’re familiar with the dark version of Sabrina The Teenage Witch thanks to Netflix, then you know Sabrina Spellman lives with her two aunts, Zelda and Hilda; a cousin Ambrose, and her cat Salem. Her friends, who all conveniently have witchy descendant ties in Greendale, are Roz, Susie, and Harvey, her boyfriend. As Sabrina upholds her regular life, she’s battling the satanic forces bound by her family where she’s expected to give up on her mortal best friends and Baxter High for the Academy of Unseen Arts and battle with the three witch sisters: Prudence, Dorcas, and Agatha.

In this story, Sabrina worries Harvey doesn’t love her since they’re not officially in a relationship after a year of dating. Since she’s about to come into her witching ways, she asks Ambrose to help her cast a love spell. Except Ambrose takes over the spell with Sabrina forgetting the words. Then Harvey starts to act strangely with showing his affection for Sabrina, who keeps worrying that Ambrose may have tricked her with putting the wrong spell on Harvey. As she worries, Sabrina befriends a water spirit in the woods that seems to understand what’s at stake. But Sabrina realizes more is at stake as she comes into her own magic.

My copy is an uncorrected proof, so this scene might’ve been cut out. But the scene of Ambrose’s Blackness being singled out while he’s flirting with a mail carrier stuck out to me. The carrier is surprised to see Sabrina as Ambrose’s cousin and explains the surprise since Ambrose is “African-American.” Which he’s not. He’s from Britain, but later Prudence, who’s also Black in the TV series, is just described as having a dark complexion. Race is irrelevant to the story except for Roz, who is African-American with a preacher father and genetic blindness from her slave descendants relevant to witchery. It seemed like an awkward moment yet expressed a bigger issue of how nonwhiteness has to be pointed out in a kid’s book when the character’s race is not central to the story.

Overall, the book is a fun, dark young adult read that pairs well with the Netflix series. It gets wordy in the descriptions to the point where the book felt a tad longer than it needed to be. There are black-paged chapters in the book to describe backstories to the other characters though not all backstories become a strong thread in the book but maybe will in later novels.

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book reviews

Book Review: ‘The Poet X’ by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Poet XThe Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo is a coming-of-age novel that expertly showcases the teenage life of a girl of color who’s first-generation American scared to share her true voice due to family expectations.

Xiomara is a Dominican teenager living in New York City with the gift of poetry she feels she can’t share with the world because she has to please her strict parents. Her religious mother makes Xiomara and her twin brother Xavier aka Twin attend after-school bible lessons. Xiomara is rough around the edges while Twin is active in his religious lessons and goes to a high-performing school, so Xiomara suppresses her love for poetry, especially since Poetry Club coincides with her religious classes. Her young teacher, Ms. Galliano, inspires her to find her voice, and when she does, Xiomara is falling in love with her classmate Aman, which is another no-no under her religious household. When Xiomara begins skipping church for poetry, her world begins to crumble as she realizes she can’t be the pure Catholic Dominican girl her parents want her to be.

This is a great YA novel with the necessary elements describing the hardships of an adolescent girl of color struggling with being American and also having immigrant parents going by the stricter rules of their homeland. I read it on audio book, so the characters’ names may not be spelled correctly, but the author does a fabulous job in her poetic prose-y voice, so definitely recommend the audio book.

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film reviews

Netflix Options Sarah Dessen Novels for Films

Pioneering young adult novelist Sarah Dessen will see three of her novels become films on Netflix as the streaming service announces the upcoming projects.

Sarah, who released her latest novel The Rest of the Story earlier this month, will turn the following books into cinematic pieces: Along for the Ride from 2009, which will be the first to see its onscreen adaption; This Lullaby from 2002; and Once and For All from 2017. Netflix provided summaries of each book below.

Along for the Ride

 

It’s been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents’ divorce—or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live. A job in a clothing boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. In her signature pitch-perfect style, Sarah Dessen explores the hearts of two lonely people learning to connect.

This Lullaby

A New York Times bestseller. She’s got it all figured out. Or does she? When it comes to relationships, Remy’s got a whole set of rules. Never get too serious. Never let him break your heart. And never, ever date a musician. But then Remy meets Dexter, and the rules don’t seem to apply anymore. Could it be that she’s starting to understand what all those love songs are about?

Once and For All

After years facing brides with cold feet and badly behaved wedding guests, wedding planner Louna has become skeptical about romance and plans on remaining single during her last summer before college. Luckily, the busy wedding schedule provides plenty of legitimate excuses for Louna to avoid opportunities to meet potential dates. That changes when satisfying a particularly fussy bridal party requires hiring the bride’s brother, Ambrose.

No dates have been announced for the projects yet.

Sarah’s current novel The Rest of the Story centers on “big-hearted Emma Saylor, who reconnects with a part of her family she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl—and falls in love, all over the course of a magical summer.” Sounds like the perfect summer young adult read. Sarah’s first novel That Summer came out in 1996, making her one of the veteran young adult novelists still producing work today. (Author note: My favorite novels I read in high school by Sarah was Dreamland and This Lullaby mentioned above). According to her website, the New York Times best-selling novelist’s 14 books have been published in over 30 countries and have sold millions of copies worldwide. Her literary accolades include the 2017 Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association for outstanding contribution to young adult literature.